Sydney holds upper broom

Cape Breton Post

Published: Mar 11 at 10:27 p.m.

Sydney Curling Club's Robin Nathanson, left, and Travis Stone, right, begin the journey down ice as third Mark MacNamara delivers a stone during Sunday play at the 2018 Nova Scotia Travelers Club Curling championship at the George street club. Skipped by Kurt Roach, the host squad has two opportunities to win reclaim the title it won two years ago in Yarmouth. - David Jala

Team Roach has two shots Monday to win provincial Travelers championship

SYDNEY — A red-hot Sydney rink has two chances to reclaim the provincial title it captured two years ago.

Skipped by Kurt Roach, the Sydney Curling Club foursome, which also includes third Mark MacNamara, second Travis Stone and lead Robin Nathanson, won three games on Sunday before an enthusiastic crowd at the George Street club.

The local quartet has won six consecutive games after dropping its opening match at the 2018 Nova Scotia Travelers Club Curling Championship that is being hosted by the Sydney club.

By sweeping to victory in all three draws on Saturday, the Roach rink claimed two of the bonspiel’s three brackets and earned itself top positioning for today’s play against Mike Callaghan of Halifax’s Mayflower Curling Club.

That means if the host club representatives defeat Team Callaghan in today’s 9 a.m. draw, they would once again become provincial champions, thus earning the right to represent Nova Scotia in the national Travelers championship in November.

But, if Team Roach loses the morning match, then it will have another opportunity at 1:30 p.m., with the winner of that game becoming provincial champion. And it’s an experience they’ve been through before.

“We had the same scenario two years ago in Yarmouth and we fortunately won the first game,” recalled MacNamara, who explained after winning a provincial title a rink must “sit out” a year before being able to participate in the competition.

“We’re throwing really now, the loss in the first game was a wake-up call and we’ve now had those six wins in a row to give us that double chance at the championship.”

Sunday’s play began with Roach romping to an 8-3 win over Berwick’s Kevin Saccary. The Sydney rink then defeated Callaghan 7-4 before beating Tony Moore’s CFB Halifax rink 7-2.

The only other Cape Breton team entered in the competition was the Gordie Cormier rink from the Schooner Curling Club, located at the old Sydney radar base. The squad, which also includes third Stephen Leslie, second Thomas Drover and lead Mel Windsor, was eliminated from play on Saturday evening after losing all three games it played.